Pete Tong Discusses the Future of Dance Music in America

Mainstream American audiences may not recognize his English accent over the radio, but Pete Tong’s name has been synonymous with dance music for the past two decades. As the host of his own show on BBC Radio 1 and co-producer of the station’s famed Essential Mix, he has been called everything from the ‘Pied Piper of House’ to the “global ambassador for electronic music.”

His guest roster reads like a who’s who in dance music, having interviewed and premiered tracks from the likes of Daft Punk, Paul Oakenfold, the Chemical Brothers, Sasha and Digweed, Swedish House Mafia and more recently, Disclosure. Tong has not only witnessed new trends develop; he has helped set them in motion. In many ways, Pete Tong has done — and continues to do — for dance music what Dick Clark did for rock and roll.

“I always say, I don’t turn water into wine,” he said in an interview prior to his set at New York’s Electric Zoo Festival. “I just think I latch on to good stuff at a time when there’s already a natural groundswell behind it. It’s a bit like surfing and catching the right wave. You have to find the right record, but at a time when people are ready for it.”

Now, perhaps more than ever, his influence is starting to carry over to the U.S. Not only is he now based in L.A., but he hosts a weekly dance music show, “Evolution” on iHeartRadio, which also broadcasts on more than 80 stations nationwide. He recently announced that the program will be expanding to Beatport (owned by SFX Entertainment), and will feature the two-hour format, plus the song premieres and guest mixes that he has become known for overseas.

“I do think that after five years of the most commercial end of EDM being the staple diet of Top 40 Radio, there might be a way to use the platform to push on from here,” he said. “I think after five years of any genre, audiences get fidgety and start to look for something new.”

Tong explained that unlike in Europe, where a youth culture emerged from the marriage of club culture and electronic music, American kids have entered the scene at 16 or 17 years old. They’re too young to go to clubs or underground parties, so their first experience with the music is likely over the radio when they hear Avicii, David Guetta or Calvin Harris. Then, when they finally have the chance to go see their favorite DJs in person, it’s often at a big festival like Electric Zoo.

“That’s equally valid because that’s the reality of today, but it brings people in at the biggest part of it, said Tong. “There’s so much more to the scene than that. Culturally, it has something more to offer than just the shiny bits you see at the top.”

Dance music in America is generally associated with the big explosions and formulaic drops that have become synonymous with the term “EDM.” However, as Tong explained, “there’s EDM, and there’s everything else.” The key to the scene’s survival aboveground in the States will come down to educating the current generation about all the different varieties of dance music, which can range from the subtle, more soothing sounds of Disclosure, to the classic house and techno beats of veterans like Josh Wink and Carl Cox.

“Rather than just thinking that was a crazy period in my life, hopefully there is chunk of people who fall in love with the music and want to continue to explore,” he said. “If it’s introduced in the right way, I don’t see why we can’t use the last five years to evolve the scene.”